Megaupload assisted a US prosecution of a smaller file-sharing service in 2010, 18 months before it itself was the target of a high-profile copyright-infringement lawsuit.
The Kim Dotcom-fronted file-hosting website Megaupload turned over details of five of its users in response to a June 2010 warrant [PDF] against NinjaVideo. …

This would be the Megavideo that was used en masse for streaming copyrighted material but deliberately only ever showed Youtube style amateur clips on its main page in order to present a legit image of itself? The Megavideo that you couldn't search directly because you'd likely stumble across all that infringing content? The Megavideo that paid third-party pirate sites through its reward scheme for driving traffic, even though they were clearly nothing but lists of links to specific infringing Megavideo files? The Megavideo that only allowed 72 minutes of free viewing before the user was required to buy a subscription and was therefore acting as a Netflix-like content streaming service? The Megavideo that could undercut legit streaming services because they paid no royalties on all that user-uploaded infringing content? That Megavideo?

Safe harbour provisions only apply if copyright infringement is incidental to your service, not the foundation of it. Dotcom's outfit hid behind these provisions. They encouraged users (read; pirate sites) to upload infringing material by rewarding them monetarily for popular files. All the while, turning a blind eye to whether material was infringing or not because they claimed the uploading user was responsible. They then took payments, in the form of viewing subscriptions, from other users funnelled to them by the pirate sites.

The US government massively overstepped the mark when they raided his NZ home but by no means is Dotcom the innocent victim he likes to paint himself as.

@Fibbles

Old news

Kim came out and said this near enough as soon as the latest case opened. I'm not sure why El Reg is on a vendetta against Kim Dotcom. He may well be a bit of a douch at times but he also has some good points.

As I said on another story (where my comment was removed, first time I've ever had a comment removed here on TheRegister), I really don't understand why El Reg is reporting such bias against Kim/Mega.

@sabroni

Do you expect anything better

With hacks like AO running rampant through it's pages telling half truths and outright lies. It's like Fox news with the Quote of the Day that all their commentators have to use during the day to get their point across.

Re: I'm not sure why El Reg is on a vendetta against Kim Dotcom

at least it's not the other uk it website (name of which i no longer remember - its been years since i've stopped reading it), the one with a moron writer with a bitter, hateful personal grudge against nvidia.

Re: I'm not sure why El Reg is on a vendetta against Kim Dotcom

Re: all the comments

what a bunch of whining pussies. Came on here expecting your political views to be endorsed and got a little disappointed?

The register will take the piss out of anyone it likes. If you don't like that then please come into the comments section and moan like a bunch of entitled teenagers until the world changes to make you happy. If you could hold your breath while you wait that'd be super!

What you seem to have missed is that the files the DoJ used to get the warrants the NZ anti-terror squad used for the raid, was based on files not being taken down that CARPATHIA had been told to not touch, because of a warrant for the Ninjavideo case. Now, the DoJ had responded saying 'we never told MU not to delete it, we only talked to Carp, so when MU didn't download the files and were aware of it, it wasn't us that told them. Completely missing that carp told MU about the service of court orders they got from the DOJ.

So, on one hand, had MU deleted the files, they would have been prosecuted for tampering in an investigation and destruction of evidence. When they didn't touch them, they got this. DoJ wanted to have it both ways. It's really not that hard to grasp, especially as the DoJ's filings over the past week have basically confirmed the story.